A constant cicle of running away and trying to forget bad memories. Bloodborne gave to the player the power fantasy of the hunter, but behind every "prey slaughtered" lies a deep sense of regret. A lot of time lost, a lifetime of lies where your only pleasure is being a hired killer.

The game has a slide showing your levels of bestiality and insight, but in the end they are the same. Like all of the souls games you are tied to do what your told to, only a pawn in a much bigger game of chess. Either become violent and nonsensical, or passive and stoic.

You are reminded at the whole game that you have to always come back to the Hunter's Dream, but this time you need to explore the Hunter's Nightmare. A nightmare that only exists to forever remember the sins of who came before you. Those who were hurt will not be totally compensated, but in the process of studying the mistakes of the past, you can avoid repeating them.

Ludwig and Laurence devoted their lives to serve their own sense of distorted justice, The Living Failures are direct consequences of that decision, and Maria is a person who forever regretted having been part of it all. It's almost as if she recognized that she is yet another tragic character from From Software, and killed herself in disgust. But the key point for me is the Orphan of Kos, it is a fight against a being who has just been born and whose only baggage is hatred for killing his own mother; it is perhaps the most difficult fight in the game, and rightfully so, is the moment of liberation from the molds of pre-determined life. Destroying the nightmare here means being able to start again, resolve your differences with your genetic and memetic inheritance to finally be able to live in peace.

"...Ahh, sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean... A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all that there is and can be."